Blue Snow
by nothing new in this world
Summary: First there was Noa. Then, she found Rose. Then Rose found Mr. Panda. Then they all found Bretton. And then... Well it kind of went out of control-what do you think a devil cat will do in a submarine?... Law/OC rated T for unavoidable language
1. A beautiful day

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own the plot for this story and the various OCs.**

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It was a very beautiful day on Helberald. Although it was April still, the sun was shining like it was June and the snow covering the small island of North Blue was sparkling under the sunrays, making it look like a jewel.

It was the kind of day, with a weather so rare in this season, where every single person with the slightest bit of sanity would be outdoors, enjoying the day. The parents had sent their children to play outside while they were themselves getting some time free from family worries. While all the kids of the town were out in the fields, skating and snowball fighting, the adults had all converged to the main place of the village, because luckily, today was market's day.

And Helberald's main place was quite crowded. People had come from all around the island, either to sell or to buy products, or to enjoy the weather and the ambiance, or to get the latest gossip from their neighbours and acquaintances. But although most of the people there were locals, there also were quite a few travellers coming from all over North Blue—like Noa.

The young girl was putting the supplies she'd just bought in her bag while thanking distractedly the owner of the shop. The latter had been trying to engage a conversation since she had entered his shop.

"You're most welcome, dear," answered the old man, considering her bag full of supplies. "You're travelling the seas, am I right?"

"Indeed I am," Noa nodded with a crooked smile; but oblivious to the fact that his young customer wasn't in a talkative mood, the old man just kept on talking.

"And how long has it been?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, I think it should be around ten years already..." mumbled Noa, shrugging slightly. Her bag was already full and the last can of dried tomatoes just wouldn't fit. "Dang it..."

"You know you look quite young... Although, since it's been ten years, you can't possibly be less than twenty-"

"Oh, actually I'm nineteen," interrupted Noa. Concentrated as she was on making the dried tomatoes fit between the canned fruits and the bandages, she completely missed the look of utter astonishment of the shop owner.

"A young lass such as you, travelling all alone..." said the old man, genuinely worried. "You know how dangerous it is with all these pirates... Shouldn't you consider joining the crew of a merchant? If you did you'd be protected."

"It's quite alright, please, don't worry," said Noa, and she pushed hard to make the can fit. The can kindly got into the bag (finally!) and she smiled, satisfied. She looked back at the old man, still smiling. "I've always liked travelling alone. I enjoy far more being able to decide of my own path freely and stop whenever I feel like it."

"I see." The old man sighed, finally giving up. He shook his head, and smiled (although a bit sadly). "Well good luck!"

Noa simply nodded and turned away without looking back. She was a bit offended by the old man's worrying—he was very nice, right, but being a girl (or should she say a young woman?) didn't mean she couldn't take care of herself. Why judge her only on appearances... Well... She didn't look like much of anything, but that didn't mean she was helpless!

And she wasn't used to anyone worrying about her anymore—she didn't want anyone worrying about her anyway. For years she had been roaming the oceans on her own and she was just fine! She was free of going wherever she wanted to, free of stopping on any island she liked for however long she felt like it, and most of all, she didn't have any bounty so no worry concerning the marines or the bounty hunters!

...

Although the pirates could be a problem sometime, but until then, she had managed.

Walking quickly through the market place towards the small harbour, she kept on thinking about her conversation with the old man, feeling more and more aggravated by the minute. She really didn't like interacting with people; it was really troublesome and complicated, not worth the bother. They were always asking you questions about your life and things that had nothing to do with them, judging you from what you looked like, giving you their pity even if you didn't want any.

Travel along with a merchandize ship? Did she really look that weak?

...

Well, it's true that if you were travelling and didn't have to worry all the time about watching your back, sailing the seas would be much more enjoyable... But she didn't have much of a choice anyway, because there was also Rose—little, adorable Rose, the only human on earth worth interacting with. Rose was just a kid, there was no way a merchant would accept a useless kid on his ship... Well, Noa would have to pay but she didn't have the money so that pretty much ruled out this possibility.

Noa sighed. No easy way for her, she'd have to keep on watching her own back—and Rose's too—all by herself, like the responsible grown-up she was.

Determinedly, Noa pushed the old man and his unwelcomed advices out of her head as she left the main place of the village. In a couple of minutes, she was on the small harbour of Helberald. Without pausing, she headed straight for her small boat and jumped on board.

"Rose! I'm back!" she called. "And guess what? I have a surprise for you!"

Receiving no answer, Noa went inside. The galley (or what had been named as such, by default of a real one) was completely empty and the little girl was nowhere to be seen.

"Rosie-Rose!" called Noa again, setting her bag down on the table. "Are you here?"

Could it be that she was asleep? Was she bluffing, one week earlier, when she had told Noa that she was big enough and didn't need afternoon naps anymore? Noa walked through the galley and opened the door to their bedroom, but the beds were empty.

Could it be nightmares like last time? But when Noa looked under the beds, she didn't find any little girl.

"Strange. Where could she be?" muttered the young woman. She was beginning to get worried. Really worried. "She can't be in the storage room, she never goes down there. She said she hates it."

But knowing Rose, the little girl could have decided that she wanted to face her fears and gone into the storage room, locking accidentally herself up. In which case she would be terrified...

Noa went quickly back to the galley and opened the trap leading to the small storage room. "Rose, you can come out now!" She called, but once again, there was only silence. "Rosie?"

Noa closed the trap, a bit more forcefully than she had meant, and looked around her, nervously clenching her hands. Not good, this was really not good. The boat wasn't really big, there was no possible hiding place and Rose was nowhere to be seen... So she could only be somewhere outside the boat.

"Crap! And I told her not to leave the boat!" groaned Noa.

She ran out of the boat and jumped on the solid ground, her heart beating so hard it almost hurt. She looked around her, thinking about all the reasons why Rose couldn't be left alone outside, imagining all that could have happened to her.

_If anyone recognized her, if anyone hurt her..._ She thought wildly.

"Onee-san?" called suddenly a small voice.

Eyes wide, Noa turned to the person whose voice she had just heard. A little girl with big, bright eyes, the colour of North Blue, and long light pink hair was innocently watching her.

"Rose!" Noa exclaimed, letting out a long sigh—she was so relieved! She dropped to her knees and took the child by her shoulders, looking at her gravely. "Where have you been? I was so worried! I told you not to leave the boat!"

"I was just here," answered Rose, showing barrels standing on the edge of the harbour, barely ten meters away from their own boat. "There was Mr Panda and he looked quite lonely. So I went there to sit with him and look at the sea."

"Mr who?" asked Noa, furrowing slightly her brows. Wasn't Rose a bit too old to have imaginary friends?

"Mr Panda!" exclaimed Rose, beaming at the young woman. "Come! He wants to meet you too!"

Rose then took Noa's hand and dragged her to the barrels, calling for the mysterious Mr Panda.

"Who is Mr Panda?" Noa asked again, sceptically.

"He lives here, on Helberald," answered Rose. Since Noa was not walking fast enough in her opinion, the small girl let go and ran ahead, disappearing behind the barrels, but she kept on talking all the while. "And he likes the town very much, because there are always lots of fish and fish is his favourite!"

Noa crossed her arms and waited patiently for Rose to come out. What had she invented this time?

"Ah! Mr Panda! Here you are! Come on! Onee-san is back and she wants to meet you!"

When Rose finally came into view, she was holding a very big and fat cat in her small arms—a white cat with black spots, and especially black spots around each one of his eyes, making him, indeed, look exactly like a panda.

_Here we go again... She picked something up and now she's never going to want to leave it..._

"Rose..." began Noa, trying to find the right words.

"He's cute, isn't he!" said little Rose, beaming at her onee-san, pure glee in her eyes. "And he's also very nice! Look!"

Noa stared at the cat, who stared right back at her with his yellow eyes. In a matter of second, the young woman was frowning: she could swear this cat was looking down on her!

"I don't doubt a minute that he's very nice," she said with a stiff smile, trying to ignore the cat who was still glaring at her. "But sweetie, we already talked about that, remember?"

Rose's reaction was instantaneous. "But, onee-san! Mr Panda..."

"Is a cat," Noa interrupted softly. "He's living here, on Helberald. It's his home. You wouldn't separate him from his home, would you?"

Rose remained silent, looking sad and ashamed: she had obviously been thinking about taking Mr Panda away from his home.

"It's ok, Rose," said Noa, smiling warmly. "Now, let Mr Panda continue his nap and come with me, I have a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" The little girl exclaimed, looking instantaneously better. "What is it?"

"Come on! It wouldn't be a surprise if I told, now would it? It's in the ship already. Let's go!"

Rose gently put Mr Panda down. "Goodbye, Mr Panda! Take care!"

Laughing softly, Noa took little Rose's hand in hers. Walking side by side, they slowly went back to their small boat. Noa was listening to her little sister's happy chattering, smiling softly and answering in all the right places.

They got on the boat and Rose let go of Noa's hand, running towards the galley.

"Hurry up, onee-san!" She called from inside. "I want my surprise!"

Smiling amusedly, Noa took her own sweet time before going into the galley: she 'tidied up' the deck, enjoying thoroughly the frustrated cries from the little girl. Finally, she entered the boat, only to see Rose, her head in the supplies bag, looking for the promised surprise.

"Couldn't wait, huh?" Noa couldn't help but laugh as she watched the little girl half disappearing into the bag. "Ok, get out! I'm gonna dig it up for you! You couldn't find it anyway: I hid it!"

"Alright, but hurry up," the little girl said.

She got out of the bag, pouting—which only got her sister to laugh louder.

"Tada!" exclaimed proudly Noa, taking out of the bag a small wrapped packet.

"What is it?" asked Rose, puzzled.

"Open it. But be careful, it's very fragile!"

Rose took the small packet and opened it carefully. When she was done, her round face lit up with sheer joy.

"Strawberries! You found strawberries!" the little girl said, looking adoringly at her big sister.

"I did!" Noa answered, smiling broadly. "It's been such a long time since you could eat some. I saw these and just had to buy them."

"Waaaa! What should I do? Say, onee-san, should we bake something? Or a fruit salad? Or a mousse? Or-"

"Calm down! You know I can't cook well. I could try to make a cake, but if I failed... Wouldn't you like to eat them just as they are? I tried one of them on the market, they're really good, you know."

Rose looked down at the strawberries thoughtfully. She took one and raised it very slowly to her mouth, keeping her eyes on it the whole time. She froze her hand millimetres away from her mouth—she was thinking so hard that Noa could almost see the wheels reeling in her head. The rose-haired girl hesitated for a couple of seconds more before she gulped it down.

Noa looked at her expectantly, waiting for the verdict. But Rose didn't say anything—she didn't need to. She took another strawberry and ate it with a very contented smile. As she was eating the third strawberry, she went to sit on a chair.

"Don't eat too much of them or you'll get sick," Noa said as she began taking things out of her bag again. "Keep half of it for your breakfast tomorrow."

"Mm-mmh," answered her little sister, obviously intent on eating them all right now.

_Well, at least I warned her..._

After Noa put all the supplies in the cupboards, she took the last item out of the bag: the most recent newspaper of North Blue, with all the bounties newly edited. She sat at the table, facing little Rose.

She began to go through all the bounties one by one, looking especially for the one concerning North Blue. As Rose and she were always travelling, they had great chances of encountering pirates and Noa wanted to be prepared—regularly keeping up to date with the bounties was one way to keep up to date.

Lately, she was particularly worried with one of the youngest crews, whose captain's bounty had been increasing exponentially in barely half a year. She was all the more anxious because they'd been seen on a nearby island barely a couple of weeks ago, the result now being that their bounties had gone up again. She really didn't want to have to face them, but they had already spent too much time on Helberald and they couldn't afford to get delayed anymore. Even if the chances of encountering the pirates in these water were high, they had to take the chance.

Sighing deeply, she laid the young captain's bounty on the table, staring at it darkly.

"Who's that?" asked Rose curiously, temporarily pausing her strawberry feast.

"Trafalgar Law," answered Noa. "He's the captain of the Heart pirates."

"Heart Pirates? That's a strange name... As if they could be nice."

_According to the newspaper,__ they're not nice at all though_, Noa thought, cringing inwardly; but she didn't want to worry the little girl so she smiled. _I hope we won't ever have to see them with our own eyes. Law's bounty is now 100 million berries and his crew was created barely seven months ago._

"He looks really tired," Rose noted, slightly worried. "Maybe he's sick?"

"Who knows?"

Noa quickly looked at the other bounties, but apart from Trafalgar Law's, only a few had changed. She got up and went to her desk, in the corner of the room, where she put them in a drawer. When she came back to the table, Rose had already resumed her devouring of the strawberries.

The young woman sat down at the table and began to read the paper.

"Onee-san, you're planning on leaving the island soon?" suddenly asked the little girl between two mouthful of strawberries.

Noa turned her eyes towards her sister, looking at her carefully. Throughout the years, the eldest had always been worried of her sister getting tired of their chaotic way of life.

"I was thinking of leaving tomorrow, early in the morning," Noa said finally. "I want to go further south, where there is a nicer weather. What do you think?"

"That sounds great!" the little girl smiled brightly. She continued on enthusiastically eating strawberries—which were now almost finished.

_Although going south may not be the best idea ever_, Noa thought bitterly. _It's close to the Grand Line entrance so there will be lots of pirates AND lots of marines... It's dangerous all right, but I'm tired of the snow, I need sun_!

Lost in her own thoughts, Noa wasn't even reading anymore. She was just looking blankly at the pages.

_We will have to be careful though, find an island where we won't be noticed... Maybe we could even stay a bit longer... After all, it's been ten years now, I don't think anybody could recognize me anymore... Is there anybody left who can recognize me anyway?_

Noa shook her head and put all of her questions in the back of her mind: if she began thinking about such things now, it would never end.

She concentrated on the article which read:

New law passed by the World Government: The Shichibukai grow even more powerful.

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**A/N: Hey there! I had this idea on my mind for a while and decided finally to publish it. I read a lot of Law/OC stories, but the OC was always Law's mechanic. I want to make this story different, hopefully that's what you're looking for too and I won't disappoint you!**

**Don't forget to review, please-reviews ARE a writer's fuel!  
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	2. Not really the usual kind of fish

**Disclaimer: nothing changed since last week: I still do not own One Piece-still hoping though...**

**Song used (although I changed the lyrics a teeny tiny bit to fit the story better): Fairy Tale of New-York by The Pogues (and I do not own the song either... damn!)**

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_Something's not right..._

As Noa was looking at their supplies in the storage room, she couldn't help but think that she was going crazy. They'd left Helberald two days ago, sailing towards the south. Two days... It really wasn't that long, right? So how was it possible for their food to diminish so fast?

_An uninvited guest, maybe?_ Noa thought, looking around her darkly. _Impossible, the boat is just too small for someone to hide. Whether it'd be Rose or I, one of us would have seen him or her right away..._

After a few seconds more thinking, Noa left the storage room and carefully closed the door behind her.

This was a very serious situation. Whoever it was on their ship, he could be dangerous so she had to be very careful. But even if she was perfectly able to protect herself, Rose, on the contrary, couldn't. As her big sister, Noa had to keep an eye on her at all time to make sure nothing happened to her.

Noa went to her desk and took a small chest from a drawer. Inside, there was her only weapon, an old riffle. It wasn't much, but still better than nothing.

As she hid the riffle in an inner pocket of her jacket, she could hear Rose's voice outside, as cheerful as usual.

"...like snow? I like snow too!" the little girl was saying, seemingly really happy. "It's the best for snowmen! Onee-san often helps me to make snowmen on the desk! Did you already make snowmen? And snowball fights?"

_Who is she talking to?_ Noa wondered, frowning slightly.

"But I like sun too. What about you? Right now, onee-san is taking us south! She said there's going to be lots of sun there!"

"No way!" Noa exclaimed, a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She took her riffle in hand and ran to the deck, throwing the door open. Outside, Rose sat on the wooden floor. She looked at her big sister, stunned by her sudden appearance. In her arms, she was holding close to her a really fat cat, white with black spots and wide yellow eyes.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Noa muttered, putting her riffle back in her jacket.

"Onee-san!" Rose exclaimed, looking worried all of a sudden. "Please, don't be angry with me! But... Mr Panda..."

"Mr Panda is the one who's been eating away our food?" Noa exclaimed. "I can't believe it!"

"Onee-san, Mr Panda really wanted to come with us you know! The morning just before we left he came on the boat, and I was going to tell him that it was better if he stayed with his friends and family, but he told me that he wanted to stay with us on the boat. And I couldn't leave him alone..."

Seeing that Rose was on the verge of crying, Noa didn't have any choice but to calm down. She crouched in front of Rose, shooing the fat cat away, and took one small hand between hers.

"You should have told me, Rose," she said gently. "I know you were afraid I would get angry, but now we have a big problem. This cat obviously has a very consequent appetite and thanks to him, our food supplies have already been depleted from a quarter in two days! At this rate we will never have enough food to hold on until the next island. If you'd told me earlier that you really wanted to keep Mr Panda with us, I would've bought more food."

Rose looked down at the ground, visibly ashamed. She didn't dare meet her sister's eyes.

"I'm sorry, onee-san," she said in a voice so low Noa barely heard it.

"It's okay, love," answered the young woman with a soft smile.

Noa kissed her on the forehead before looking around her.

"And where is this blasted cat now?" she sighed. "At least, now that I know what I have to face, I can take adequate measures. As long as I lock the food in the storage room, there shouldn't be any problem..."

That's when she saw Mr Panda with several pieces of dried fish in his mouth, looking at her smugly from the barrel on which he sat.

Noa froze. Hadn't she just locked the door to the storage room, a couple of minutes earlier?

"What the..."

Mr Panda gobbled down his dried fish under the stunned look of the young woman. As he looked defiantly at her, he let out a satisfied 'miaow' and jumped down from the barrel.

"Hey!" Noa shouted, running after him. "Don't you dare run away! Come back here! How did you get that fish? You little-"

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It had been three days since the discovery that Mr Panda had decided to join them in their journey.

Three days was not much of a long time, but for Noa, it had been an eternity—an eternity in hell. What had been a peaceful, nice little boat before their arrival on Helberald, was now the theatre of a merciless war between the young woman and the fat feline.

If Noa didn't know any better, she could've swore that this cat had some kind of devilish power. The locks on the doors were useless, no matter how many of them she used. She had tried to use a leash to keep him on the deck, only to find said leash abandoned in a corner of the deck and the cat finishing a piece of really expensive meat. She had also used a sleeping draught that she had put on some food, but the cat had managed to eat the food, leaving only the bits where there was sleeping draught.

On the verge of going completely crazy, Noa had tried to throw the ever-hungry cat overboard, but that only resulted in him taking shelter in Rose's arms—who had cried saying that 'onee-san was really mean to him'.

Giving up on ever getting the upper hand, Noa had spent the whole day fishing: if she caught enough fish, maybe he would stop eating their supplies and instead eat the fresh fish she was catching... Although until now, she hadn't caught even one damn fish.

So here she was, sitting on the edge of the deck, sulking as she was waiting for a fish dumb enough to catch onto her line. Sure enough, Mr Panda was not far from her, staring at her through half-lidded eyes. Noa had no doubt he was thoroughly enjoying the show: her, being outwitted not only by a simple (and obese) cat, but also by all the fish of the area.

Noa let out a heart-wrenching sigh.

_If only there was something else to do... Anything..._

But there wasn't. The sea was completely calm, without a single wave on its surface. There wasn't any wind either—the only reason the boat was still going forward was because of the currents. Noa verified every moment or so that their boat's course was still correct but otherwise...

Having nothing else better to do, she decided to sing.

It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank,

An old man said to me: "Won't see another one."

And then he sang a song: the rare old mountain dew.

I turned my face away and dreamed about you.

She heard Mr Panda let out an irritated miaow and smiled broadly. This was exactly what she needed on such a day: knowing that she could get on this cat's nerves too! So she took in a deep breath and sang louder.

They've got ship big as towns, they've got rivers of gold,

But the wind goes right through you, it's no place for the old.

When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve,

You promised me the New World was waiting for me.

You were handsome - You were pretty, queen of East Blue city.

When the band finished playing they howled out for more!

Sinatra was swinging, all the drunks they were singing,

We kissed on a corner then danced through the night!

As Mr Panda was mewling some more, for her greatest delight, she sang the chorus as loud as she could:

The boys of the World Marine choir were singing Galway Bay,

And the bells were ringing out, for Christmas day!

She stopped abruptly as she suddenly felt something pulling on her line.

"Woooooot!" she shouted loudly. "I finally got one!"

It was exactly what she needed: after finding a way of annoying Mr Panda, now she had her first catch!

She began to drag her catch to the boat, but her smile soon disappeared as she felt it resisting so hard that she could barely keep her fishing line in her hands. She began to swear loudly, using all her strength not to lose her catch. Very soon, an interested Mr Panda came to see what was happening, followed by little Rose.

"Onee-san, what's happening?" asked the little girl, looking oddly at her big sister—who was now bent to prevent herself from falling so that she was almost parallel to the deck.

"Just a minute," Noa groaned. "Oh, no, I'm not letting you escape!"

And she yanked the line as hard as she could. Something actually quite big suddenly jumped out of the water and landed heavily on the deck. Rose and Mr Panda shouted and jumped behind a barrel while Noa began a victory dance.

"Wooohoo! Who's the boss now, you... you fish!"

But she froze as she noticed that it wasn't a large fish on the deck, but a man.

"What the..." She stuttered, completely dumb-founded.

"Onee-san... Who is he?" Rose asked, the top of her hear barely visible behind the barrels.

Noa poked the man with her fishing pole, but he didn't move an inch. "I don't know, Rosie. But don't worry, he won't hurt you: he's unconscious."

Slowly, Rose began to edge closer.

"I- Is he dead?" she asked.

"It certainly looks like it," Noa answered, poking him some more. "Looks like my hook got caught in his shirt..."

And what an outrageous shirt it was: a very bright yellow with psychedelic circles of a bright orange, purple, blue and green. His jeans were torn open at his knees and he was wearing cow-boy style dark leather boots. Tattooed snakes were running along his arms and disappearing under his shirt and he was also wearing flashy jewellery: big golden rings on his fingers, heavy chains around his neck. Noa deduced that he must have been quite wealthy, although he was still fairly young (maybe around her own age). His face was still a bit childish and his short, unkempt hair was a deep black.

Gathering her courage, Noa tightened her grip on her fishing pole and slowly walked closer to the young man. She had to check if he was still alive, didn't she? She crouched next to the young man and softly put a hand on his neck, looking for his heartbeat.

"He's still alive!" she exclaimed, flabbergasted. "Hey! Sir! Can you hear me?"

She slightly tapped his cheek, calling him. Rose, with Mr Panda in her arms, forgetting her fear of the unknown man, got closer to take a better look at him.

"I wonder what happened to him," she said softly.

"I wonder too. Hey, sir! Wake up!"

The young man slightly moved and groaned.

"He's finally coming to!" Noa said, relieved (not really that she cared that much about a complete stranger, but she had absolutely no idea how to do first aid). "It's alright, sir, you're safe now."

The young man groaned again and tried to open one eye, but blinded by the light, he closed it again right away.

"W- Who are you?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"Noa, owner of this little boat. My little sister, Rose, and her friend, the ever hungry Mr Panda."

The man managed at last to open his eyes and looked at her with a far-away look. "Is t- Is there any adult on this boat, boy?"

Rose snickered and Mr Panda let out a mocking miaow. Noa threw them a dark warning glance before returning her attention to the man.

"Well, sir," she pouted, a bit offended—although she knew this man probably couldn't think straight after almost drowning. "You're being quite rude to the one who just said your life. You know, I'm a girl—a woman actually."

"Oh... Well... You don't really look like one."

She scoffed. Could you even believe that guy?

"Err... If you don't want me to throw you overboard again, you might wanna drop the attitude."

"Sorry," the man said, slowly sitting up. He rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Although it's difficult to see anything without my glasses... Did you see them by the way?"

"No, no glasses," The young woman answered a bit coldly—well, the guy didn't look sorry at all for what he said! "It was pure luck I caught you. I think you should feel lucky and not worry too much about the glasses."

"Oh, no, wait! They were in my pocket!"

And the man put his glasses on with a large, satisfied smile. When he was done, he carefully inspected his surroundings with bright, alert eyes. When they fell on Noa, still crouched next to him, he started.

"Oh, right," he said. "You're a girl alright."

"Why thank you, captain obvious," she replied curtly. "So nice of you to finally notice. Any more cunning comments left?"

"Err... No, I think I'm done."

"Good. Now who are you?"

"The name's Bretton. And you're Noa, right? And... Oh, that must be Rose and Mr Panda."

"Hello," Rosie said shyly, half hiding behind Mr Panda.

Bretton looked around once again, inspecting the deck. "It is... quite a small boat you have here. Isn't there anybody else with you?"

"No, it's just us," Noa answered, shrugging.

"No man? No adult? No one? Just... a late teenager, a kid and... a cat?"

"As you can see," Noa sighed, already regretting saving the man.

"Is that wrong? Just the three of us?" Rose asked, worried. "I think we're having fun though..."

"There's nothing wrong with that, sweetheart," Noa answered right away.

"Nothing wrong?" Bretton scoffed with a crooked smile. "Well, with all the pirates sailing the seas, it is—at least in my opinion—pretty stupid but well..."

"Ok, you listen now," Noa intervened, seeing Rose looking more and more anxious. "We saved you: be grateful. Now, if you think we're so stupid, you won't have to stay long anyway: in two days we'll be arriving on Jenkind Island. In the meanwhile, you will just have to shut your trap or I'll throw you overboard—and believe me when I say this because I'm very serious."

Bretton just looked at the young woman a bit fearfully and nodded.

"Good!" she said. "Now, on to the next question: what were you doing in the water?"

"That's quite simple actually," Bretton said, slightly shrugging. "I was training with Bepo on the deck of our ship, and the blasted bear hit me too hard: I flew overboard. I think my crewmates tried to get to me but I got caught in a strong current that took me away too fast for them to have the time to do something."

_A bear?_ Noa thought, looking at him with a somewhat perplexed look. _He's either in delirium, or he really doesn't like his crewmate... Whatever._

"Do you have any idea where your crew was going? We could try to send them a message to let them know you're still alive. I think they'd be glad to know."

"Yeah, I'd really like to do that but no message will ever reach them anyway..." the young man stayed silent for a while until he seemed to think about something. He grimaced. "The captain's gonna kill me when he learns that I almost died during training..."

Noa frowned slightly. Captain? Training that implied fighting? This man...

"Are you a pirate or a marine?" she asked suspiciously.

"Err..." The man looked at her warily. "If I say yes to one of them will you throw me overboard?"

"Just answer the question."

The young man pursed his lips, his black eyes never leaving Noa's. After a while, he sighed.

"No use in lying, I guess. I'm a pirate."

"Oh, good!" Noa exclaimed, relaxing and smiling.

It was now Bretton's turn to get suspicious. "Why? Are you going to turn me in?"

"No, don't worry," Noa said, laughing. "According to me, pirate is less risky than marine."

"Huh?" the black-haired man stuttered, a bit confused.

"It's complicated," answered Noa, shrugging. "I want things to be clear though: I hate marines, but I don't trust pirates either. Don't stab us in the back. I'm not quite as defenceless as one could think."

She was only bragging—there was absolutely no way she could fight a trained pirate—but he did not need know that. She had a sister (and a cat too... damn) to protect and it was well worth a few lies.

Furthermore, she didn't know the guy. He didn't look that bad but he still was a pirate nevertheless. She had to be careful.

"Seems fair," nodded Bretton. "Pirates aren't known for being the most truthful dudes ever."

He stayed silent for a while, looking at his feet.

"Anyway, I really thought I was going to die," the young man finally said. "Thank you for saving me."

Noa felt her lips stretch into a warm smile. Maybe the guy wasn't so bad after all. "You're welcome," she just said. "Feel free to stay with us as long as you wish to. You're an honorary member of our crew now... Although you might not want to brag too much about it I guess. Reputation and all..."

"Right," Bretton answered with a large smile, laughing softly. "You're without a doubt the strangest crew I've ever seen! And what are you doing exactly all alone on the seas? You don't look suicidal to me so you must have a good reason I suppose."

Noa's gaze grew distant as she looked at the horizon, her smile growing a bit nostalgic. Her reasons to travel the seas...

"Just for freedom," she answered with a bright smile, turning her eyes back to him.

Bretton obviously didn't believe her but didn't comment on it. He nodded silently with a slight smirk.

_After all,__ as cliché as it sounds, to sail the seas, you have to be just as mysterious as they are..._

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_**Thanks a thousand times to Jen567, School boy humor and xXFireFistAceXx for their reviews! Thanks also to all those who alerted/favorited this story!**_

_**And if you have any question or remark you'd like to share, PM me or review *hint hint!***_

_**NNITW  
**_


	3. Snow storm

**Disclaimer: Still do not Own One Piece.**

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* * *

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"Come back here you blasted feline! Give me back my food or I'll skin you alive!"

"Bretton! Leave Mr Panda alone! He was just hungry!"

"MWWIIAAOOOOORRRWWW!"

Sitting at her desk, Noa took her head between her hands and sighed deeply, trying to block out the ruckus behind her. But focusing on her logbook was impossible, not with three kids in the room with her.

Was there any way she could write in this kind of environment? No, of course, there wasn't!

Was there any way they were going to get silent one day? No, of course, there wasn't! Why? Because ever since Bretton had arrived on their boat the day before, the war had taken unseen proportions.

At least, Mr Panda's goal was not to make Noa go mad anymore, only to kill Bretton... But Bretton wouldn't go down without a fight...

"PPPFFFFFFFFTTTT!"

"AOOW! You've got to be kidding me!"

"Bad Mr Panda! Bad! You must not injure people!"

"I can't believe it! I'm bleeding! Urgh! You're gonna pay for this! No one makes the mighty Bretton Woods bleed and lives to tell the tale!"

Noa sighed again. She was growing more and more desperate by the minute... And she couldn't even throw them out: there was a snow storm outside, trapping them all in the galley where it was still a bit warm.

_Why did I choose to come to North Blue to begin with?_ She thought bitterly. _Oh, yeah... People from the north are said to be warm, calm and nice... Well, looks like I was sorely mistaken._

As the screams behind her were getting louder and louder, Noa felt something snap in the back of her head. She whirled around.

"WILL YOU BE QUIET?" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

But unfortunately, her anger didn't seem to get noticed at all. On the contrary, the galley was only turning more and more chaotic. Noa was literally fuming but she wasn't surprised at all: ever since she was born, people had never taken her seriously (generally, the more furious she was, the more she made people laugh).

She had to use another tactic.

"If you don't quiet down, I'll make sure to lock down all the food in the storage room and no one will have dinner tonight," she threatened quietly.

_That_ got their attention.

They all froze and looked at the young woman with wide eyes.

"No one?" Bretton asked, wary.

"Absolutely no one," Noa answered calmly.

"But... Onee-san..."

"Don't 'but onee-san' me, Rose! You _all_ have been insufferable ever since this morning. I've had enough! The weather out there is awful, we all have to spend our whole day in this wannabe-galley, so let's at least try to make it liveable for all of us. I can't even update the logbook with all this racket! If you want to kill one another, fine! But at least, do it quietly!"

Mr Panda looked at Rose, who looked at Bretton, who shrugged slightly, pouting.

_A pirate pouting_...

Seeing that none of them was emitting comments anymore, Noa assumed the troubles were over at last. She turned back to her desk and sighed deeply. So, she was thinking about-

"But if you lock the food down in the storage room," Bretton realized suddenly. "Then, you won't be able to eat either."

Noa barely resisted the sudden need to bang her head against her desk. She slowly turned back to the pirate who was looking at her, his eyes shining triumphantly behind his glasses. He seemed to think that his argument was going to save them.

"Contrarily to you, Bretton," Noa said, very slowly and very calmly, "I don't mind skipping one meal: I'm used to not eating for a while."

Bretton's assurance vanished and he grimaced, understanding that he had lost.

"Good," Noa concluded. "Now that everything is clear, I'm going to continue writing. Play nicely, children."

_Ah... Delightful silence..._

_

* * *

_

The weather had finally calmed down with the night. Everything was quiet but Noa couldn't sleep.

She'd been lying in her bed for hours already but slumber would not come. Her mind was bubbling with thoughts of all sorts and she couldn't calm down.

She was thinking about her past and her future. She was thinking of her little sister and their new cat. She was thinking of Bretton too. He'd been on their ship for a day and a half but it already felt like he'd always travelled with them: the man obviously had a way to befriend people easily and quickly.

Not to mention Rose was obviously quite taken with him. It was perfectly understandable though: because of their incessant moving around, she'd never had the chance to make any friends before. Bretton was one of her first real friends—Noa and Mr Panda apart—and she was really happy about it. She would be broken-hearted when he'd leave them...

Noa sighed deeply and turned her gaze towards her little sister who was sleeping soundly, Mr Panda at her feet. The little girl was buried so deep under the covers that just a few strands of pink hair could be seen, pointing out on the pillow. The sight made Noa smile softly.

_Well, no use in staying here when I can't sleep_, the young woman finally decided, slipping out of her bed as quietly as she could. _Let's at least do something worthwhile._

She put on warm clothes and, her boots in hand, she tiptoed towards the door. She started when she noticed Mr Panda was staring at her with one half-opened yellow eye.

_Creepy_...

"Shh," the young woman whispered, scratching the cat between his ears. "We don't want to wake little Rosie up, do we?"

Mr Panda purred slightly and closed his eye again, going back to sleep.

Noa silently opened the door to the galley and exited the room, carefully closing the door behind her. She gave her eyes a few seconds to get used to the light (a bit dimmer in this room) until she could distinguish things around her: the table, her desk, the cupboards and closets, the sofa where Bretton was sleeping, snoring softly.

Noa held back a snicker—who would have thought 'the mighty Bretton Woods' would snore?

She quickly crossed the room until she was standing next to the door leading to the deck. As silently as she could, she put her boots on, tightened her coat around her and slipped out of the galley, quiet as a shadow.

The air outside was ice cold and despite her warm clothing, Noa couldn't help but shiver. She soon forgot the cold though: the view was beautiful. The moon was high in the sky and the waters of North Blue were a wide, oily, black and peaceful surface, barely disturbed by a few ripples here and there. Under the moonlight, the snow on the deck had taken a slightly blue-ish kind of color, as well as the sails.

Noa felt instantly better as she was looking at the scenery around. That was why she loved the sea: the Peace and Quiet that could be found nowhere else but on its vast waters, the feeling of being alone in this world with no worries and no obligations, the soft sound of the small waves splashing against the wood of the boat... There was nothing better on this earth.

After a few minutes however, she was getting really cold and didn't have any other choice but find something to do before she turned into an ice statue.

She went to a corner of the deck and grabbed an old broom. She began sweeping the deck, slowly pushing the snow off the deck. As she was working, she began humming softly, not any song in particular, just what was going through her head.

She was surprised to hear the door to the galley open behind her—and even more so when Bretton appeared, looking half asleep.

"What are you doing?" He asked a bit moodily, putting his glasses back into place on his nose.

"Sweeping the snow off the deck. The boat is too heavy with so much snow on it."

"And you decide to do that... in the middle of the night?"

"Well... Yeah," Noa shrugged and kept on sweeping.

Bretton let out a deep sigh and stepped on the deck, closing the door behind him.

"What are you doing?" Noa asked, raising a brow.

"Well, it wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me to leave you alone, would it?" the young pirate answered.

He took a few steps on the deck, looking around him thoughtfully. Finally, he walked to the barrels and brushed off the snow on top of it. Once the top of the barrels was cleared, he sat on them and looked back at Noa.

"Go on," he just said innocently.

"Gentleman, right," Noa muttered under her breath, going back to sweeping.

Intended on not talking to him anymore, Noa went back to her chores, staying as far away from him as she could. But Bretton quickly noticed that she was sulking.

"Hey, I never said I was _that much_ of a gentleman."

"Save it for someone who cares."

Bretton let a low whistle, amused by her anger. However, he didn't stay silent long.

"You have a nice boat, small, but well built," he said, admiring the structure of the boat. "How old is she?"

"I got her when I began travelling, ten years ago," answered Noa.

"She must have seen a lot of things then."

"Yeah, she did. We went through a lot together."

"What's her name?"

"Sirocco."

"Nice. Has a very exotic tone to it." Bretton looked thoughtfully at the small boat and finally opened his arms wide as if he was hugging someone. "Thank you, lovely Sirocco, for letting me stay a couple of days!"

"You're such a freak sometimes..." Noa sweat-dropped, momentarily forgetting her sweeping.

"You're one to talk! I'm sure you spent hours rambling to her!"

Noa snorted. Of course she talked to her! During the long years she was all alone on her boat, Sirocco was the only friend she could confide into—but not in front of complete strangers.

"I will miss you guys," Bretton sighed finally. "Tomorrow, we arrive on Jenkind and I have no doubt my captain and the crew will be there... So it will be goodbye."

"I guess," answered the young woman without looking at him. "Rose is really going to miss you."

"She's a very sweet child. How old is she?"

"She's six."

"Ah, six, when you're still pure and innocent," the pirate said dreamily. He suddenly frowned and turned to Noa. "Wait, didn't you say you began travelling ten years ago?"

"Yes, that's what I said."

"Then... Rose isn't-"

"Do you really think only blood determines who your family is?"

"Well... No, I don't... But then, where did you..." he didn't dare finish his question—maybe a bit afraid of prying too much.

"I found her almost two years ago," answered Noa in a whisper, memories flowing back to her mind. "It's... not a happy story."

She stopped sweeping and sat on the deck, facing Bretton. She had never told Rose's past to anyone... Could she tell that to a complete stranger? Bretton was not a bad person, she was sure of it but still... When she looked up at his face, he stared back, willing to listen. His deep black eyes were encouraging her to continue.

She felt a sudden need to share what she had had on her heart for so long. She wanted to talk to someone like she never did before. So she did.

"I'd arrived on a small, very peaceful island of North Blue, close to the Red Line. The inhabitants were among the nicest I'd ever met and they welcomed me with wide-open arms. It had been a while since I could settle anywhere, so I decided to stay there a couple of months and get some rest. It wasn't long though until I noticed this little girl, so small, but always alone. And when I asked about her, everybody talked about her with such... disgust and hatred... I couldn't even believe we were talking about the same girl.

"They told me her story. They told me how pirates had attacked their island, five years earlier. How they had killed, raped and taken everything they could. It seemed like they would never leave, until the captain said that they would go away on one condition only: let him have the mayor's daughter—the most beautiful girl of the whole village. At first, the poor girl didn't want to hear anything but the villagers pushed her, telling her that her sacrifice would not be vain, that she would free them from the pirates... So the girl finally gave in. The captain had his way with her during a few days and then, as promised, the pirates left and never came back. But things would never be the same again. So, when the mayor's daughter gave birth to a little baby girl, it wasn't long before the villagers blamed everything on her. They _needed_ to blame someone—anyone.

"They used to call her 'the devil's offspring'. At first her mother took care of her, but she didn't love the baby—how could she? And I don't know what abuses she had to live through with this pirate... I can only imagine what it must have been like, for her: seeing this baby grow up everyday, reminding her constantly of what had happened. So when she fell ill, she just let herself die. And at barely four years old, Rose was alone, shunned by her grandparents, by the villagers—everyone.

"It was so unfair and I couldn't stand it. So I decided to take her with me." Noa laughed dryly. "In the end, my vacations on the island were quite short... And if I were to go back, I don't think the villagers would welcome me like they did the first time—we had a few words before I left."

There was a heavy silence. Bretton was looking at the deck, some point near his feet. His fists closed so tight that his joints were chalk white.

"Does she know—Rose?" he asked finally in a strained voice.

"Of course she does," Noa nodded, smiling bitterly. "The villagers made a pleasure to remind her of that as often as they could... Though I don't think she quite realizes what it means yet."

"She's just a kid, dammit! How could they-" Bretton groaned. His eyes had a murderous gleam that Noa had never seen to them—but at the same time, she couldn't quite tell if it wasn't just the moonlight reflecting itself on his glasses...

"I've been doing my best to protect her ever since," Noa said shrugging slightly. "If she asks questions, I try to be honest with her, even if it's not always easy. And let's face it: her life will be very difficult with such a past—really difficult... But I don't really know what I should do anyway... I just hope that when she comes to understand her legacy, she will remember what I tried to teach her."

"And what are you trying to teach her?"

"You can decide of your own path. A_lways_."

Bretton seemed to think about it for a while and finally relaxed, smiling to Noa. "That's a good thing to teach."

The young woman smiled back. She jumped on her feet and went back to sweeping.

"I often wonder though," she said after a few minutes. "Maybe I should let her have a normal life. Maybe... If I left her on an island with a nice family... She could have friends her own age—not a cranky cat and a couple of rag dolls."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Bretton snorted. "Why the hell would you do that? Rose loves you, she looks up to you. If you left her, she would never get over it! Even I can see the bonds between the two of you—and I've been with you guys for one day and a half!"

"It's not that easy," Noa retorted bitterly. "She's just a kid! She needs a normal life! And I can never hope to give her a normal life!"

"Why? Just find a nice little island, sell your boat and buy a home! You could raise her then!"

"I- I just-" Noa was so frustrated she started stuttering. She turned her back on him, swinging her broom around frantically. "I can't!"

"Why? Because you love the sea too much? Because you're too damn egoistic to think about your little sister's happiness?"

Noa swirled on him, her eyes wild. A fraction of a second, she wondered if she heard him correctly and when she realized she did, she literally exploded. In the blink of an eye, she was right in front of Bretton, brandishing a menacing finger right under his nose.

"Don't you dare talk about me like that! Don't you dare! You don't know anything about me! I would offer her everything she wants if I could! I would not hesitate a second to abandon everything I have to give her what she deserves! She's my sister and I love her as such—blood bonds or not!" She breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself down a bit. She couldn't even believe she was arguing about such a thing with a complete stranger... But she had started it after all. After a while, she concluded in a soft voice. "That doesn't only depend on me... It's not like I have a choice. I never had a choice."

"I thought you were teaching her how 'one can always decide of his own path'," Bretton replied, sarcasm dripping from each word.

"I _tried_ to find my own path with what was given to me—and believe me, I had not much of a choice to begin with. Now, I just want her to be able to choose freely. The last thing I wish for her is that she leads the same life I had."

Bretton didn't answer and just looked at her severely.

"What happened to you?" He finally asked. "What is _your_ story?"

Noa took a step backwards, as if she'd been slapped in the face. Bretton could vaguely see her eyes filled with fear and grief, but she turned away from him before he had the time to make sure of it.

"That's irrelevant," the young woman said, shrugging.

And she went back to sweeping as if nothing had happened. Bretton let out an exasperated sigh and threw his hands in the air.

"I give up on you!" he said. "Thank you for reminding me why I don't deal with women: you are all _way_ too complicated!"

Noa froze and slowly turned to him. The young pirate swallowed with difficulty, wondering what he'd said to upset her again. Then, he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes and he couldn't help but take a step backward.

He didn't upset her, but this look was so much scarier...

"Did you just implicitly admit that you're gay?" she said, her smile growing larger by the minute.

Bretton's face instantly turned beet red. "Idiot!" he exclaimed. "I never said that!"

"Riiiiiiiight... But wow! I never thought I'd ever see a gay pirate in my whole life..."

"I- I'm- That's- You-"

"Come on, it's alright! Do you think I would ever judge you because of that?"

Bretton grew silent and looked at her, pouting.

"Promise you won't tell anyone," he finally grumbled.

"If you want, yeah, I promise," Noa answered. "But didn't you tell it to your crew? Or your captain?"

"Of course he knows!" Bretton exclaimed, grimacing at the memory. "I was hitting on him, that's how we met."

Hearing that last sentence, Noa burst out laughing. Even though she could feel Bretton's murderous glare, she just couldn't stop.

"This... This is the best way... to meet a captain ever!" she gasped between her laughs, leaning heavily on the old broom. She laughed so hard her belly started hurting soon.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah. Very funny."

"Sorry, sorry. But you have to admit, that's an amazing story! I can't wait to see what your captain looks like now!"

"Well, you'll see him tomorrow maybe," answered Bretton, still a bit stiffly. "I know he planned to stop on Jenkind. I'm not sure when though."

"We'll find that out tomorrow anyway," Noa said simply smiling heartily. "And should there be any problem, you know you're welcome on the Sirocco."

Bretton nodded with a slight smile.

A companionable silence settled between them and lasted for a while.

"I'm gonna go back to sleep," Bretton finally said. He yawned loudly, stretching his arms as he jumped down from the barrel.

"Alright, goodnight," Noa said, smiling.

"Don't kill yourself working."

Noa let out a short laugh but didn't say anything. She stopped sweeping when she saw Bretton staring at her. He had opened the door to the galley but visibly couldn't get himself to go inside.

"What is it?" she asked, curious.

"About what you told me," he said softly. "You were right: I don't know anything about you, your past or your reasons for travelling. But even if you can't settle down somewhere—whatever your reasons are—I think you should keep Rose with you anyway. After all, _you_ were the one who decided to take her with you, away from her island and everything she knew. No one can blame you for that, you did the right thing, but now, you're her only family and you have to realize that. And family stick together, no matter what happens."

He sighed deeply and concluded in a whisper. "Think about it."

And he closed the door behind him, leaving a stunned Noa behind him.

The young woman stayed immobile for a while, still processing what she'd just heard. Finally she let go of her broom and went to the railing. She distractedly brushed off the snow and leaned on the railing heavily, taking her head between her hands.

"Why does everything have to be so goddam complicated?" she muttered.

One thing was sure however: she really wouldn't be able to get any sleep that night.

* * *

**So? What do you think? I wanted to let you know a bit more about the OCs own background stories-even if you learned mostly about little Rosie... I wanted to make it as realistic as possible (after all, pirates stories aren't always happy and fluffy right?) but I'm afraid I overdid it. Was it too angsty or sappy? I'm waiting for your comments!**

**Thanks to my beloved reviewers ELMO-kibafangirl11, Jen 567 and TrunksgirlBlaze27, I'm happy you all like this story. Thanks also to all those who reviewed and favorited the story, I'm happy with the success it got until now-but really guys, I'm still hoping for more feedback!**

**Until next Sunday! Don't forget to review!  
**


	4. That's just chemistry

**Disclaimer: Do not own One Piece (this is getting repetitive...)**

* * *

Noa sneezed loudly and let her head fall back on the table with a loud thud.

"I can't believe I caught a cold..." she muttered, sniffling pitifully.

"Well, you were cleaning the boat in the middle of night after all," Bretton replied, looking unaffected (she had woken him up before the sun even rose so she didn't deserve his compassion). "You kind of deserved it."

Noa was about to answer but didn't have any time: she sneezed again, even louder.

"Ugh... My head..."

"Don't you have any medicines at all? Do something before it gets worse."

"Yeah... I should...take medicines..." Noa agreed—although she didn't move a finger and just continued to lay there, seemingly lifeless, on the table.

Bretton sighed and rolled his eyes. Why did he have this feeling that he was being pushed into the role of a babysitter having to look after a sick and capricious child? Damn! They were about the same age, he shouldn't have had to do all this!

"Where do you keep the medicines?" he said with a resigned sigh.

"My desk... drawer... red chest..."

"You don't have to make yourself sound so pathetic: it's just a cold, you know."

The young pirate was beginning to sound quite annoyed. He got up and walked unhurriedly to Noa's desk.

"Can't help it," Noa muttered darkly. "I _feel_ pathetic. It's like my brains are floating inside my head and every time they bang against my skull, it hurts sooooooo bad."

"Yeah, that's what people call 'a bad cold'."

Bretton rummaged through the drawers for a while until he found the little red chest Noa was talking about. He came back to the table and put the medicines chest in front of the young agonizing woman.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

Barely lifting her head above the table, Noa slowly opened the chest and began looking at the small glass bottles one by one. Bretton was looking at her, almost amused—she was putting up such a drama for a simple cold!

He looked more attentively at the medicines. There were more than thirty different little glass bottles of all sorts of shape and color, each one of them containing something different. There were bright colored liquids, or dark suspicious-looking powders... He made a face when he realized that a bottle held what looked disturbingly like small eyes...

"Where the hell did you get that?" he asked, taking said bottle between the tips of two fingers and frowning at it.

"Don't. Touch." Noa groaned without any energy—and thus persuasion—trying to get the small bottle back. "It's fragile."

"Yeah right." Bretton shrugged and gave it back to her. "And where did you get it?"

"My travels... Lots of different islands..."

"You mean... You make your own medicines? You know, if you play with things you don't know, you're gonna end up poisoning yourself."

"I know what I'm doing quite well, thank you very much! It's a family tradition: my father was a chemist."

"Oh."

Bretton couldn't help but shiver when he saw her take a bottle with what looked like mud inside. She frowned slightly, muttering something along the line "have to make some more later" and opened the bottle.

"Cheers," she said with a grimace to the pirate.

"You're not going to-" Bretton began, incredulous.

But he didn't have the time to finish his sentence. She closed her eyes and gobbled the foul looking liquid in a split second.

"Urrgh!" she exclaimed, making a disgusted face. "Definitely the worst medicine ever!"

_Well, at least, if it heals her and she stops being so annoying_... Bretton thought, sighing inwardly.

It wasn't long however before he noticed something was wrong. Noa was perfectly immobile and her face looked stiff.

Long, suspenseful minutes passed by, Bretton staring almost anxiously at the young woman. Suddenly, her face turned a very interesting shade of green and she gagged slightly. She hurriedly clamped her hands on her mouth and began to look frantically around her. All hell broke lose as Bretton realized what was happening.

"You've got to be kidding me!" the young pirate exclaimed, jumping on his feet and running around the galley to find a bucket or something that looked like it.

He froze when he heard retching sounds behind him.

"Dammit..."

* * *

"Brmmf! Immfohryff!"

Bretton turned to look at Noa. One of his eyes was twitching.

"If you want me to understand what you say, take this scarf down from your face first!" he groaned, rolling his eyes heavenwards.

Noa hesitated a second, then lowered her scarf until it was just under her lips instead of up until her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Bretton," she said with an awkward smile.

"Yeah, well, you'd better be!" Bretton replied, still looking pissed. "I had to clean your puke from the galley for hours!"

"Sorry..." Noa whispered again, her cheeks flushed.

Bretton didn't answer and turned back to what he had been looking at since earlier: Jenkind. They were almost there.

"Look at the sunny side of things," Noa said, poking him slightly (with her left elbow as her hands were both buried deep in her pocket). "You'll soon get rid of us."

"Idiot," Bretton replied, half-smiling.

He wasn't as happy as he thought he would be as he saw the island coming closer. Despite some minor turn-downs, he had spent two very good days on this ship and it was really unsettling, this sudden nostalgia he felt at the idea of leaving the Sirocco and her strange wannabe-crew. No use in making false hopes: once he left Noa, Rose and the evil cat, he would most likely never see them again...

"And where is Rose?" he asked. "Isn't she up yet?"

"Oh, crap!" Noa exclaimed. "With all this mess I completely forgot to wake her up!"

And she disappeared inside in a flash.

Finally alone on the desk, Bretton allowed his emotions to show on his face.

He was sad. He was really sad. And that was stupid because he had met the girls two days ago! He had responsibilities—namely crewmates that needed him—to go back to. But he couldn't help but feel like it was a waste. He had this gut feeling that the two girls were important somehow.

Throughout his childhood, his mother told him countless times that one never met people by simple accident: it was Destiny. To most people, it sounded crazy, but even if he never really talked about it with anyone, he never doubted a second that it wasn't true. After all, he had many examples of situations where he could feel that Destiny had played a part in. His meeting with his captain was only one of them—although at the beginning he had thought it was—ahem!—attraction, he had soon realized what it really was and had not hesitated a second when he was asked to join the crew.

Now he had the same conviction for Noa and Rose. But what could he do about it? They were obviously intent on following their own path. Although they were travelling around the world, paradoxically, the two of them were way too absorbed in their own universe to really notice what was going on around them—Noa always had her head in the clouds and spent her time reading and writing in her one too many books, while little Rose was just being a (strange) child.

And there was no way his captain would ever be interested in these two weirdoes—nice, cute and all that jazz, but weirdoes nonetheless. They were not fit for the pirate life.

Bretton sighed deeply and resigned himself. After all, even if he was meeting people because his Destiny decided so, it didn't mean he would spend a long time with them.

But he would never forget Noa, Rose, Mr. Panda and the Sirocco. That much was sure.

* * *

Noa slipped into the bedroom where Rose was still sleeping soundly. She couldn't help but cringing when she noticed Mr Panda had disappeared.

_Most likely eating away our food again_... she thought bitterly.

Sighing, she walked up to Rose's bed and crouched next to it. After carefully looking at the lying form in front of her, she softly put a hand on the covers where she estimated the little girl's head was.

"Rosie," she said. "Time to wake up, sweetheart."

She barely heard a long, annoyed moan coming out from under all the covers. The lying form shifted slightly.

"Hey, sleepy-head," Noa laughed good-heartedly. "It's already past ten and we're almost arrived to Jenkind! Get up! You don't want to miss saying goodbye to Bretton, right?"

The little girl didn't answer and Noa grew a bit worried.

"Rosie, you okay?" she asked, trying to peer under the cover. "Could it be that you caught a cold, too?"

"No, I'm fine," came the muffled answer.

"You're obviously not," Noa insisted, frowning.

She sighed and sat on the bed, determined to find out what the problem with her little sister was.

"Is it because Bretton is leaving today? You're sad?" she probed.

There was a long silence and at last, Rose pushed her covers away so that Noa could see her eyes looking carefully at her.

"Can't he just stay with us?" the little girl asked, obviously trying to hold back her tears.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rosie, but he has to go," Noa answered, feeling really sad all of a sudden. "You know, he's got responsibilities, he really has to go."

"But when we found Mr Panda we kept him with us in the end."

"No, sweetheart, this time it's different," Noa couldn't help but smile at the image: Rose adopting Bretton as her new human-pet after Mr. Panda, the cat... No, that came out wrong, didn't it? "Bretton is not a stray cat we can take in: he is part of a crew. They're his friends and family."

"But we could be a family together too! We could-"

"Rosie, it's not that easy. He already has a family. He can't change it: imagine how much he'd miss them."

The pink haired girl didn't answer, obviously angry at her sister for telling the truth.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore!" Rose exclaimed and put her covers back over her head.

"Rosie..."

"You're mean! Go away!"

Noa tried to ignore the pain inflicted by those words. She knew that Rose didn't really mean them but still...

The young woman remained sitting on the bed for a while longer, waiting to see if her sister would calm down. After a few minutes, though, seeing that she obviously had no intention of acknowledging her anymore, Noa resigned herself and left the girl alone in the room.

As she exited the galley, she saw Bretton, already maneuvering the ship towards the entrance of a small port.

"Well, that was certainly quite fast," she muttered under her breath.

"Hey! Where's Rose?" Bretton asked, obviously surprised at seeing her coming back alone.

"She... doesn't want to get out of bed," Noa answered simply, shrugging.

She didn't want to upset the pirate and give him bad memories just before he left them, but Bretton was not fooled.

"She's angry with me, huh?" he asked with a slightly bitter smile.

"Not really you actually," Noa said, shaking her head sadly. "She's rather angry at me for telling her things she didn't want to hear."

"Oh... Sorry about that..."

"It's alright, don't worry. It's not the first time she's upset with me for something and it won't be the last. She will get out of bed when she feels like it—or when she's hungry."

"I shouldn't expect her to say goodbye then?"

Noa hesitated a few seconds before she finally nodded. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, she's just a child!" Bretton replied, a smile warming his black eyes. He pushed his glasses back as they had slipped down his nose. "I really had fun with you guys."

"Yeah, I could hear that," Noa grimaced good-naturedly. "Although it's too bad you're leaving: now Mr Panda is gonna go back to his old habit of constantly pestering me."

"Nice to know I've been useful for something..." the pirate muttered darkly, obviously remembering his long fights with the devilish cat. "I haven't seen him in a while by the way. Where has he gone off to?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if right now he's finishing the last of our food supplies. When we arrive on Jenkind, I have to check the storage room to see if there's a hole somewhere. I still don't understand how this blasted cat can get in there when there are five locks on the damn trap."

Bretton laughed heartily. "Well, good luck with that! I hope you don't mind if I don't stay to see how that turns out?"

"Coward," his friend retorted, her face was perfectly expressionless.

"Hey! That's a bit exaggerated."

"When you've been dreading another fight with him since yesterday? No, I don't think so."

The pirate grumbled a few unintelligible words.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?"

"Shut up. I'm trying to concentrate. We're entering the harbor now and it's a complicated maneuver."

"Right."

Barely fifteen minutes later, the boat was moored and Bretton was on the leave. Noa jumped down from the boat and looked questioningly at him.

"I asked a few people around here," he said. "My crew has not come here yet. So I'll just wait for them, they shouldn't be too long—a few days at the most."

"That's good!" Noa said, smiling. "I bet they'll be happy when they see you're still alive. But I still think you should send them a message."

"Believe me: the message would never get to them, not with our kind of boat."

Noa shot him a funny look but he didn't give her any time to ask. He slightly motioned to the big empty backpack she had.

"What are you gonna do?"

"We need supplies if we don't want to starve before we get to the next island," Noa answered, frowning slightly. "I just checked the storage room and it was just like I thought: Mr. Panda finished the very last of our food... I still can't believe he devoured two weeks supplies in a few days..."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Bretton said sympathetically, patting her on the shoulder. "Alright! I'll help you with the supplies, let's go!"

"Really? Thanks!"

"Well, it's the least I can do, after all you guys did for me."

"I knew you were a good gay—oops, sorry, I meant guy."

"Hey! I can't believe you sometimes! You promised!"

"Oh, please! Come on, Bretton! It was just begging me to say it out loud ever since last night!"

"I don't care! You're annoying, you know that?"

"You're not much better, let me tell you."

"God! I can't believe I'm still helping you!"

"Well, I just saved your life. But you're right, no problem. After all, what is a life-debt nowadays?"

"Just shut it and walk!"

And, so they went, bickering like an old married couple. They entered the nearest street and never noticed the strange looks the local fishermen threw them.

* * *

**Wahoo! Me got lots of reviews! Me very happy! XD Please keep them coming, it's great to be able to know what you guys think about the story. I got several questions about Bretton's age, I tried to make it a bit clearer in this chapter but if it's still not enough, let me know.**

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter. I think I can now tell you that things are going to get more interesting from here! ;]**

**Thanks a thousand times to all those who took the time to review the last chapter: Jen567, SnapshotsOfEternity, ichigo1508, Moonlight Calls, ELMO-kibafangirl11 and loser94. I love you guys! 33**

**Thanks also to those who favorited/alerted this story (you know, if you have five seconds, you can drop a review too, I'm not gonna eat ya! ;D hehe)**

**Until next Sunday, take all good care!  
**


	5. Adventures on Jenkind Island part 1

**Disclaimer: you know the drill...**

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"Oh, my! What a charming young man!"

Noa and Bretton started at the sudden exclamation as they were just entering the shop. Bretton barely had the time to let out a frightened squeak before he was tackled to the ground by a very small and wrinkled and bouncy old lady.

"Err…" stuttered Bretton, looking at the pink-clad shop tenant who was lying on top of him, her two bonny arms securely locked around his torso. His eyes filled with fear and he turned to Noa for help but the young woman was too busy laughing at the scene to do anything about it.

"Tell me everything, handsome! Whatever you need, you shall have it!" The old woman said with a very suggestive wink and a ludicrous smile.

"Oh… Roger help me…" Bretton faltered, growing pale.

Utterly helpless, the young pirate could only look at the predatory old woman whose eyes were glowing with a very frightening, indescribable feeling. That's when his friend decided to take pity on him and flew to his rescue.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Noa said politely with a large smile. "We want to buy food supplies for our travel. Do you have some?"

The shop woman looked at her suspiciously, then back to Bretton who gulped, seemingly very uncomfortable. She tightened her grip on the young man.

"And who are you?" she asked somewhat coldly.

"I… am…" Noa grew silent as she was carefully analyzing the situation.

She had to be wary, very wary indeed. One wrong word could mean her doom: the old woman would kill her on the spot if she didn't like Noa'answer. From the corner of her eyes she saw Bretton who was silently mouthing something that looked suspiciously like the word 'girlfriend'. She sweat dropped.

_'No freaking way I'm ever sacrificing my life for the sake of a pirate!'_

"I'm his cousin!" she said then, ignoring the death glare from Bretton (lying on the ground he was not that impressive anyway).

The old woman instantly warmed up to her. She smiled brightly and got up to her feet.

"Wonderful!" she beamed and grabbed Bretton's arm. Although the young pirate was approximately twice her size, she effortlessly got him up to his feet. "I'm Rin, owner of this shop and senior to this lovely little town! I've been here for more than a hundred years now and as you can see, I'm still as good as new!"

With these last words, she poked Bretton who jumped three feet in the air. Completely oblivious to his wide fearful eyes, she gave him a flirty smile and bounced away towards the back of the shop. Noa let out a small laugh as Bretton's face turned slightly green. It was priceless!

"If it's food you need, honey, worry not for I have plenty!" Rin said as she disappeared behind the counter—literally. "Do you have any preferences? I received some new provisions two days ago so I got pretty much everything you might want." She suddenly appeared from behind the counter, having climbed up a stool that allowed her customers to see her. She winked for the umpteenth time towards Bretton who cringed slightly. "Usually I sell the old crap to my foreign customers so that the locals have the most recent products, but for you, honey, I'll give nothing but the very best I have."

"Actually we need a lot of food," Noa said, trying not to laugh again. "We have nothing left so I want to buy enough to restock our supplies entirely."

"Nothing left?" Rin repeated, wide-eyed. "Girl, could it be that you're travelling with just the right amount of food to hold on between each island? That's a bad plan, sweetie! A very bad plan! You have to have at least the double!"

"Yes, that's usually what I do, but I had to face some… unexpected events."

"Unexpected events?" The old woman echoed, looking worriedly towards Bretton (currently examining a fascinating ball pen lying on the counter). "Nothing too bad I hope, love?"

"No, my sister just decided to take in a stranded cat," Noa deadpanned.

Rin shot her a funny look and a heavy silence fell on the shop. After a few seconds, Noa smiled brightly and put down her backpack on the counter, opening it.

"Anyway, we need everything so, please, just fill in the bag."

"Alright, honey," the old woman nodded. "But if you want to restock your supplies, this bag might not be enough."

"Oh, that's quite right… Well, let's fill this bag and we'll take a few crates too."

"Very well! Wait a second, dear. I'll be back in a minute."

Rin began to hum a soft song and jumping down from her stool, she disappeared in a room in the back of the shop. As soon as her voice seemed far away enough, Bretton whirled on Noa, pointing a threatening index finger at her.

"You- If only there wasn't Rose too, I would've killed you!" he groaned, so angry he was literally fuming.

"Oh, come one, Bretton! The old woman is just hitting on you. It can't be _that_ terrible."

"But did you see the way she looked at me? And how she smiled? And- Nothing like that would've happened if you'd just told her that you were my girlfriend!"

"Yeah, and she would've killed me on the spot. Just bear with it, we're only here to buy some food. Hold on for one hour more and then you'll never see her again."

Bretton didn't answer and crossed his arms above his chest, pouting childishly. Noa couldn't help but laugh at seeing his face but left him alone—thanks to Rose, she knew how to deal with kids' tantrums quite effectively. Looking around idly at the various items in the shop (books, clothes, parchments and writing utensils, stuffed animals, compasses, a "how to be a pirate for dummies" manual…) she slowly went back to the front of the shop.

Outside, despite the cold weather and the cloudy sky, there were a lot of people. As far as Noa could guess, it looked like the town's men had just come back from a several week long fishing session. Consequently, everyone looked fairly happy.

Noa looked for a while at the people passing by. Rin had stopped her humming in the back of the shop and she could perfectly hear the soft murmur of the town: laughs, shouts, kids running, a boat's bell ringing in the distance, people talking…

"It's a nice town," Noa said finally.

"Yeah," Bretton answered, still a bit grudgingly. "It's way too calm for me though."

"Calm can be nice."

"It can be nice indeed, but our town is everything but nice," Rin said, standing just next to Noa.

The young woman jumped back and fell flat on her butt. "What the hell?" She cried out, a bit angrier than she intended to.

Bretton burst out laughing behind them—no doubt he'd seen the sneaky old woman coming. Noa shot him a deadly glare but it didn't have the slightest effect on him. She just decided to ignore him and (wishing inwardly he would choke) she got back to her feet.

"What do you mean?" she asked to Rin.

The old woman rapidly looked at Bretton and smiled fondly. He was still laughing and had taken off his glasses to wipe out the tears of mirth rolling down his cheeks. Noa just rolled her eyes and turned back to the old woman. She instantly forgot Bretton at the sudden sadness that appeared in the old shop-keeper's eyes.

"Seven years ago, a new marine captain was appointed by the government to be the head of the base on our island. Until then, we'd always had very good relations with the marines stationed on our island, but this man… He's the devil. He regularly raises the taxes, leaving us with practically nothing to live off and when anyone tries to protest, he executes them. He terrorizes the whole population on our island and nobody dares stand against him anymore."

"A marine captain?" Noa murmured, frowning. "But… The higher authorities surely know what's going on, don't they? Why don't they demote him?"

"They don't know a thing, love. Henker (that's his name) bribes the rare inspectors that come to the island. He uses the very money we paid these ridiculous taxes with. He's quite rich now and very influential. Moreover, he's a ruthless pirate hunter—this part of North Blue has never been so calm before—so his superiors are all over him."

Rin made a disgusted face and distractedly put back into order a few books that Noa had been looking at earlier. She gave herself a few seconds to calm down and then let out a deep, sorry sigh.

"All we can do is wait for him to retire and hope that the next captain will be better. If I have any advice to give you, dear: don't stop on this island for too long, or he'll get you into troubles. Henker is bad news."

Noa noticed that Bretton had stopped laughing. In fact, there was no trace of laughter left on his face. He looked downright pissed. His eyes held a murderous gleam that his glasses did a very poor job at concealing (on the contrary, they kind of enhanced it). The young woman, used to seeing a nice, easy going, child-like Bretton, never thought she would see such an expression in them.

For a second, she felt fear's cold and familiar hand taking a hold of her stomach but she pushed the sensation away: he was a pirate. She had always suspected this part of him—she was almost sure that he'd already killed people—but it was something else entirely to see it with her very own eyes… Thank God he didn't have any real grudge against her! She really never ever wanted to have someone looking at her this way!

"But let's not just think about this asshole! It's a waste of our time and time is money!" Rin exclaimed suddenly. "Now let's talk business! Come and take a look: I gathered samples for your supplies. Sweetheart, you told me you had a little sister right? Does she like sweets?"

Noa and Bretton followed Rin back to the counter and during the next half an hour or so, they packed food supplies. Noa was in paradise: all the food Rin sold them was canned or preserved in small jars, so there was no way Mr. Panda could ever get to them! When they finished business, she had bought three crates full of food and her backpack was on the verge of cracking under the weight of the dried food in jars.

"Are you sure you can carry all that?" Rin asked worriedly as Noa was clumsily shouldering her backpack.

"Well, I think I'll man…" Noa began, only to be interrupted by Bretton's self assured voice.

"Don't worry, ma'am, it's nothing," he said with a smug smile, lifting the three crates effortlessly.

Noa sweat dropped and looked at him with brand new eyes. What kind of monster could hold so easily three crates full of cans?

"For you, love, it's just Rin…" The old woman literally _purred_ looking at Bretton with wrinkly, velvety eyes. "Your strength is most impressive, dear. Where have learned to do that?"

"Err…"

"Excuse-me," Noa intervened, trying not to fall backwards because of the backpack—her legs were already trembling and she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it all the way back to the Sirocco. "But could we get going? This is kind of heavy."

"Oh, dear! Let me get the door for you!" Rin threw one last flirty smile to Bretton (who just hid himself behind the crates) and she ran to the front door. As she opened it, the bell rang merrily. "Well, it was very nice meeting you! Don't hesitate to come back and see me if you need anything, I'm much more resourceful than I look-"

"We'll make sure to come to you if we need anything," Noa interrupted—nothing personal, she just didn't like goodbyes. "Thank you for your help."

"Take care of yourself, girl!"

And Noa exited the shop as fast as she could. She vaguely heard the old woman bid farewell to Bretton in an overemotional, teary voice. A couple of seconds later, Bretton was running away from the shop, dragging Noa behind him.

"Hey… W… wait a… second!" Noa whizzed, already out of breath (she never liked sports to begin with, second her stamina was almost nonexistent and third her backpack was really really really heavy). "What's t… the hur…ry?"

"She tried to kiss me!" Bretton said, throwing a quick look behind him to make sure that Rin wasn't chasing him. "I'm gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life!"

As absolutely no one was following them—although townspeople were throwing them weird looks—Bretton slowed down to finally stop and let Noa catch her breath. The young woman let herself fall to ground with a pained moan.

"No more running for me for the next month," she muttered, letting her head fall backwards so that it was resting on top of the backpack. "I hate running…"

"Come on," Bretton frowned down at her, putting the crates to the side against the wall. "We ran for ten seconds."

"I ran ten seconds with a thirty-ton bag on my back," Noa retorted, glowering. "Never again."

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The Sirocco was perfectly silent—except for the sound of small waves gently leaping against the boat. Noa and Bretton had gone off to town to buy supplies, leaving Rose alone, sulking in her bed. She had heard them talk and their voices had faded in the distance as they were arguing about something.

Rose remained buried under the covers for a while, thinking over what had happened last night.

She had suddenly woken up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare, and found herself alone in the room. Well, Mr. Panda was there, still sound asleep, but her big sister's bed was cold and empty. Rose had almost called for her onee-san: the nightmare had left her scared and restless and she needed the young woman's comforting voice to be able to go back to sleep. But then, she had heard two voices—the voices of Noa and Bretton. She couldn't hear them clearly, but that didn't matter as all she wanted was to go to her sister. So she had gotten up.

Careful to not wake up Mr. Panda, she had silently put her shoes on and quietly left the bedroom. She had been surprised by the darkness in the galley: weren't Bretton and Noa talking where it was nice and warm? But their voices were coming from outside, from the deck. So Rose had walked slowly (she had not wanted to bump into anything as the small galley was well furnished) and then she had heard what exactly they were talking about.

"Maybe I should let her have a normal life."

It was the voice of her big sister. But who was she talking about? Rose had tiptoed towards the small window and carefully peered out through the thick glass. Noa was wiping the snow off the deck; Bretton was sitting on a barrel in the corner of the deck.

"Maybe... If I left her on an island with a nice family... She could have friends her own age—not a cranky cat and a couple of rag dolls." Hearing those cruel words, Rose had felt her chest ache suddenly—a lot worse than she had ever felt before. Her onee-san couldn't possibly be talking about her? This was impossible…

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Why the hell would you do that? Rose loves you, she looks up to you. If you left her, she would never get over it! Even I can see the bonds between the two of you—and I've been with you guys for one day and a half!"

Rose had tried to get a better view, but she could only see Noa's back and Bretton's legs dangling off the barrel. She had bitten her lip, anxiously waiting for the young woman's answer. Maybe Bretton could convince her big sister not to abandon her? But her hope had been short lived as the reply had not been long to come.

"It's not that easy. She's just a kid! She needs a normal life! And I can never hope to give her a normal life!"

Her little heart had broken in her little chest. But little Rose had not cried—little Rose was not so little anymore.

"Why? Just find a nice little island, sell your boat and buy a home! You could raise her then!"

"I- I just- I can't!"

Rose hadn't wanted to hear anymore of it. She'd gone back to her bed and hid under the covers. She had stayed there, not really sleeping, all night long and all morning. When Noa had come, she'd tried to convince her to keep Bretton—maybe if Bretton stayed then Noa would let Rose stay too?—but it had just been useless. Noa really didn't want anyone with her anymore.

Now, even though she was buried under warm blankets, Rose felt cold. She just didn't understand. Was she such a monster that no one wanted her? Not her big sister, not her mother, not her grandparents, not the townspeople… But what could she do? Where could she go? She was just a child. She didn't have any power. She couldn't protect herself against bad persons. She didn't have any money either…

But Noa, she told her a few times how she left her island when she was only nine—a mere two-year difference. So she could do it, couldn't she? It would make her even better than Noa since she was younger… She could go her own way and live her own adventures. And maybe she would become famous! And rich! And very strong and brave too! And people would come from all other the world to ask for her help! And one day, Noa would come to ask for help too, and she would be very ashamed of herself for having abandoned such a brave and strong girl and Rose would help her anyway and then they would be happy again!

Rose pushed her covers off of her and jumped down from the bed. She had to be quick: she needed to be far away from here before Noa came back so that she would never find her. It was sad, but Rose had absolutely no doubt that they would meet again and everything would be better then. Maybe in two or three years? Maybe four? How much time would she need to become strong, brave and famous? Maybe… Five years at the most.

She put on warm clothes quickly and took her backpack (it was a present from Noa for her birthday last year). She only took with her what she thought was necessary and in five minutes she was done and ready to go.

…

Well, _almost_ ready.

Where was Mr. Panda?

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The main town of Jenkind—whatever its name was—was nice, but definitely not the ideal place for someone who yearned for greatness. So Rose didn't stay long in town and went directly where she thought she could find some challenge to hone her skills: the forest.

Well. It wasn't really a forest, rather a small group of trees, the kind you see in the parks sometimes in the big towns. Rose had only been once in such a town, with her big sister; Noa had called that a… What was this word again? A groove? But that small detail didn't really matter. The _groove _looked forest-ish enough. It would be perfect to perform the first of her many exploits.

Rose tightened her embrace on Mr. Panda and walked decidedly towards the trees. As they entered the dark forest, she looked carefully around her. She had to be cautious: enemies were surely lurking in the shadows, waiting for her to get distracted to jump on her… She needed a weapon.

She spotted a long, curvy stick lying forgotten on the ground: this would be her sword- no! her saber. And she would name it… Dandelion! (She didn't remember what that name was for but it sounded just perfect.)

She gently put Mr. Panda on the ground—she couldn't fight while carrying him and after so long he was beginning to feel heavy. The fat cat let out an annoyed 'miaow' and looked reproachfully to the girl.

"Let's go, Mr. Panda!" Rose exclaimed, quite excited now. "Adventure is out there!"

And she strolled forward, the reluctant Mr. Panda following a bit less enthusiastically. It wasn't long before she spotted her first enemy. She instantly froze on the spot, brandishing her sword (excuse me, her _saber_) Dandelion.

"Look, Mr. Panda!" she cried out dramatically. "The horrible and cruel Doctor Toad is blocking our way!"

At the ruckus, the toad turned his big, expressionless eyes towards them.

"Don't look at his eyes, Mr. Panda! He can kill just by looking at you in the eye!"

Rose turned her head away to avoid the toad's eyes and at the same time put a hand on Mr. Panda's eyes to protect him. The cat froze, wondering what had happened for everything to turn black so abruptly.

"We have to find a way to defeat him, Mr. Panda. But it won't be easy: Doctor Toad is formidable enemy!"

The toad croaked and jumped towards the little girl and her cat. Rose let out a loud shriek and grabbed her cat, running away as fast as the wind. Her first duel was not much of a success, but she would try again sometimes… Maybe not against Doctor Toad…

She quickly exited the forest and found herself facing a huge fortress completely painted in white. Forgetting her very-first-but-not-so-glorious-fight, Rose gawked at the building that was so high it seemed to be touching the sky. On top of the highest tower, there was a strange flag. Its background was white and there was a black seagull with clamps a bit like those of a scorpion or a crab.

"That's a strange flag…" Rose murmured.

"Hey, girl! You shouldn't be here!"

Rose turned to see a very big man wearing a white uniform towering over her.

"Who are you?" she asked, curious.

The man sweat dropped. "Shouldn't I be the one to ask you this question? And what are you doing here?"

"My name is Rose, and I'm going to be a hero someday!" the little girl answered with a proud smile.

"A hero, huh?" The man scratched his head, looking back uncomfortably to the white fortress. "Listen, kid, you shouldn't be here, go back h-"

"What is this place?"

"It's the marine fortress. Now go back home before the captain sees you. Didn't your mommy ever tell you that this place is dangerous for kids like you?"

"Oh, I'm not a kid anymore! I decided to travel on my own and live great adventures that everybody will talk about!"

"That's great. But really: go home!"

"I don't have one."

"_What_? Alright, let's try something else: where's your mom?"

"She's dead."

The man looked at Rose carefully, obviously wondering if she'd made up the whole story. He crouched in front of her to be to the same eye level as her, but seeing no trace of lie in her eyes, he began to feel rather bad. Very wary of what her answer to his next question would be, he cautiously asked:

"Okay… But… Your dad must be somewhere near-"

"Nah, I don't have a dad either."

The marine fell flat on his face, making the little girl laugh. Rose put Mr. Panda on the ground and crouched next to the marine, poking him with her stick.

"You're a funny mister!" she said with a bright smile.

"I don't think you realized what you just told me, kid!" the man groaned, shakily getting up. "Is that the truth? Don't you have any family?"

Rose thought over it for a minute. She had her big sister of course, but right now that didn't matter. A very precise plan was beginning to form in her head, and to realize it, she needed to be free from any attach.

"Nope," she finally answered with a very large, dazzling smile.

"None at all?"

"Well… I do have grandparents but they never liked me and I haven't seen them in a long time."

"God! Is such a messy family even real? Is your family from the island?" The marine scratched the back of his head, obviously very uncomfortable.

"No. But you asked me lots of questions so it's my turn now! Are marines bad guys?"

"Of course no!"

"Do you fight?"

"Well, it happens…"

"Are there famous marines?"

"Yeah… well… Yeah…"

"Are they strong?"

"Well… The admirals are pretty strong I guess… Although I've never seen one with my own eyes…"

"Do people come to them when they need help?"

"It's the duty of a marine to help the people and protect them when they need!" the man nodded, a proud look in his eyes.

"Great! I want to become a marine too!"

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**Hey guys! Well this is unexpected for you I guess? Surpriiiiiise!**

**The truth is, I feel guilty about making you all wait for Law chapter after chapter, week after week, so here: I decided to update faster! Although he's not here yet, very soon I promise!**

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter (did you like it really? I'm quite anxious concerning the part with Rosie, what do you think?). From now on I'll do my best to update around twice a week, but I'm very busy with university so when I don't have enough time, it'll be Sunday only.**

**Thanks to my beloved reviewers-this chapter would never have been up this soon without you guys: Orchidea Baia, ELMO-kibafangirl11, Jen567, loser94, The Executioners Crow, Moonlight Calls. And thanks also to those who favorited or subscribed to the chapter alert!  
**

**Take care!**

**NNITW  
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	6. Adventures on Jenkind Island part 2

**(gave up on the disclaimer, it's always the same anyway... though I should add this time that the boa constrictor song is not mine either- 'tis a shame, it's hilarious)**

**DUN DUN DUN! [just being random]  
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* * *

**Noa and Bretton emerged from the storage room, quite pleased with themselves.

They had gone in there a couple hours earlier and had found four different holes that Mr Panda had obviously been using to have unlimited access to the precious food supplies (his hairs lying everywhere were proof enough). Now, all the holes had been repaired and the food was safely stashed in barrels.

"Well, this has been a very productive morning and early afternoon," Noa exclaimed with a wide smile.

"I couldn't agree more!" Bretton nodded enthusiastically. "And now I can leave you guys without regrets: I helped you all I could."

"Yeah, you repaid your debt alright."

"Well, no, not exactly, but-"

"Oh, I wasn't asking for your opinion, dear Bretton: I consider your debt paid."

The young pirate stared at the woman smiling at him warmly. He couldn't help but smile too.

"You have a pretty messed up sense of equivalence," he muttered, a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah, I know," Noa answered in a resigned tone (which was obviously fake, considering how her eyes were twinkling merrily). "I'm collecting stray cats on my way and I feed them all for free: all my money goes there!"

"How selfless of you."

"I know, I'm a saint."

Bretton elbowed her, making her stumble forward. "Hey!"

"A saint with absolutely no sense of balance... How lame..." He said, a mocking look in his eyes.

As Noa was trying to regain her balance and not fall overboard, he pulled his glasses up his nose and jumped down the boat on the deck. The young woman followed him soon afterwards. All trace of amusement had disappeared from their faces as they both knew time had come to say goodbye.

"It was an honor sailing with you," Bretton said solemnly, extending a hand towards Noa.

The young woman sighed deeply and finally put her small hand in the pirate's big paw. His eyebrows rose in surprise when he felt some kind of fabric rubbing against the skin of his palm. When Noa withdrew her hand, he saw a small pouch. Turning it between his fingers, he heard the ringing sound of bellies.

"Noa..."

"It's not much, really," Noa interrupted, her cheeks warming slightly. "But you didn't have anything right? So, with this, you should be able to pay a room in an inn somewhere, for a few days, and eat too."

"I can't accept, not after all you did for me."

"Yes you can, and you will," the young woman insisted. "I don't think you realize all you did for us, Bretton, and I don't think you'll ever do. All I can say now is, it was great having you with us, even for such a short time. You'll always be welcome with us. In the meanwhile, take good care."

Bretton nodded. "Take care of yourself too, and hug little Rose for me when she comes out—not Mr Panda though, I still won't forgive the bastard."

"Alright," Noa smiled softly. "Are you sure you don't want me to go get Rosie though?"

"It's ok, let her be. I've never liked goodbyes anyway."

Noa nodded silently. There wasn't anything else to add anyway.

Bretton smiled cheekily, saluting her with a cocky head bow and turned on his heels, heading right for the town. It wasn't long before Noa heard him beginning to whistle, shaking his bellies pouch to accentuate the rhythm.

Smiling ruefully, Noa turned around too and jumped onboard. It was time to get prepared to leave this island and continue their route south. She really didn't want to stay longer: she never knew how to deal with goodbyes either, she preferred making them as short as she could. If she lingered here, it would only make her grow over-emotional and she would end up crying.

The young woman breathed in and out very deeply; she repeated the process several times and tapped her cheeks energetically to try to come back to her senses. Once she didn't feel like crying anymore, she headed straight to the bedroom. As she opened the door (which creaked loudly of course), she slid her head in to look towards Rose's bed. The young girl was buried even deeper beneath the covers: her hair couldn't even be seen anymore.

"Rosie?" Noa called softly.

She waited a few seconds, but Rose didn't answer, barely even moved. Noa sighed.

"Bretton left, so we're going to leave the island too," she said. "I just thought I should let you know."

She waited again but Rose made no sign of having heard what Noa had told her. The young woman pouted slightly and gave up on trying talking to her: the girl would eventually come out when she felt like it. She left, carefully closing the door behind her.

Once she was out on the Sirocco's deck, she lost no time and prepared to leave the island. She wanted out of here as soon as possible.

* * *

Rose was sitting on a chair in a very, very, very big office, Mr. Panda soundly sleeping on her lap. There was a very, very, very big desk just in front of her with lots of papers on it and lots of bounty posters on the walls all around (most of them were crossed with a bright red cross).

She was all alone and quite bored—she'd been sitting in this chair for a very long time already. So she was passing time singing her favorite songs—but she was running out of ideas.

_I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor,_

_I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor,_

_I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor,_

_And I don't like it very much._

_Oh, no! He swallowed my toe!_

_Oh, me! He's up to my knee!_

_Oh fiddle! He reached my middle!_

_Oh heck! He's up to my neck!_

_Oh, dread! He swallowed my-_

The door opened and Rose stopped her singing as she turned to the door.

A very, very, very tall and thin man with a very, very, very long sword entered the office with long strides and in a second, he was sitting behind the desk, in front of the little girl. Rose looked at the man curiously and noticed he was wearing the same white uniform as all the men here.

"Are you a marine?" she asked.

"Yes I am," the tall man answered with a large smile that revealed incredibly white teeth. He rapidly rearranged his hairstyle before saying while striking a pose: "My name is Rab Henker; I'm the captain of this base. What is your name?"

"Rose!"

"Rose, that's a very cute name, very befitting (1). Do you have a family name?"

"Hm…" The little girl thought about it for a moment. "Rose Sunflower!"

"Sunflower?" the pirate echoed, sweat-dropping. "You just came up with it, didn't you?"

"Yes!" Rose answered very proudly.

"Don't you have a real one?"

"Well… It could be Ada I guess…"

"Ada?" Henker repeated, frowning slightly—this name sounded distantly familiar.

"She's my big sister. But my grand-parents name was Garden, so it could be Garden, right? And also there's my father's name: Smith."

Rose looked quite troubled with this name issue and was quite obviously thinking really hard about it. In the meanwhile, Henker looked at her with perfectly round eyes, not quite believing the luck that had just befallen him: there was only ONE man in this world named Smith and whose hair was pink…

"Is it alright if I keep them all?" Rose asked suddenly with bright, hopeful eyes. "Rose Smith Garden Ada… Sunflower? But that would be a bit long, wouldn't it?"

"Of course it isn't!" Henker exclaimed with a very sincere smile this time (the luck!). "It's a perfect name for a marine!" He stopped as if a sudden doubt got to him and asked: "My men told me you want to become a marine… You want to become one, don't you?"

"Yes!" Rose beamed, bouncing on her chair and waking up Mr. Panda.

"Fantastic!" Henker said, his smile growing larger still. "I'm sure you'll be an amazing marine! Now, I have a few questions for you, if it's alright."

"Will I have a uniform like yours, too?" Rose asked, completely ignoring the last comment of the captain (she was just too happy to care anyway).

"Of course," Henker faltered slightly and tried again. "But first-"

"And Mr. Panda can stay with me, right? Because we're a team!"

"Who the hell is- Oh! Your cat! Of course he can! And about-"

"I think Mr. Panda will need a uniform too. Do you have uniforms for cats? And we need a team name too! Do you have any idea? I was thinking about 'The Fantastic Rose and Mr. Panda'… Or would the other way around be better? What do you think, Mr. Panda?"

The cat let out an annoyed meow (he just wanted to sleep, dammit!) while Henker was just _this close_ to pull out his own hair out of sheer frustration. He breathed in and out very deeply in a poor attempt to calm himself down—he'd always had a short temper. Rose was still blabbering away to her fat cat, not noticing the death glare from the marine captain.

Henker rose from his chair and came to stand just in front of Rose. The little girl turned her bright, trustful eyes to him and he tried his best to smile, crouching in front of her to be at her eye-level.

"Rose, dear child," he said with the sweetest smile he could muster. He raised a hand to pat her head but Mr. Panda growled in a threatening manner, so he kept his hands to himself. "You're not an islander, right?" The little girl nodded. "So how did you come to this island?"

Rose stayed silent and lowered her eyes. She quite obviously didn't want to talk about it but Henker would have to find a way to get the information: whoever had brought her here, they might have some kind of information on Elton Smith, the most dangerous pirate in all of North Blue. He'd been chasing this damn pirate captain for years now and this little girl could be the missing piece to the most upstanding achievement of his carrier!

"Rosie," he insisted, in a sickeningly sweet tone (how he hated children!). "You know you can tell me anything, right? You're going to become a marine, so I'll be your captain, and as your captain, I need to trust you… But how can I trust you if you hide things from me?"

The little girl looked guiltily at the marine captain before she finally sighed.

"I came here with my big sister, Noa," she murmured, distractedly scratching Mr. Panda's head. "But don't tell her that I'm here, she'd be furious… She doesn't really like marines…"

_Of course she doesn't like them…_ Henker thought with a leer. _So there's an older kid. She must have quite accurate information, then! It's even better than what I'd thought!_

He rose to his feet and in a couple of long strides he was at the office door, opening it.

"Lieutenant!" He barked in the hallway.

Two seconds later, a marine barged in, looking frightened.

"Captain, sir!" he squeaked and saluted the captain towering over him.

"Find this girl," Henker ordered in a low voice so that Rose wouldn't hear him (she had begun singing again her silly song about a boa constrictor). He handed to the lieutenant a paper on which he had scribbled the name. "She's an outsider to this island so she should be fairly easy to find. Bring her back to me alive. She has capital information and I want it."

"Yes sir!" The lieutenant saluted again and ran away, leaving only a trail of dust behind him.

Henker turned back to little Rose.

"Well then, as I have a lot of work to do now, I'm going to have to leave you," he said before calling for a marine. A man came in right away and saluted the captain. "Take our newest member to her room and make sure she has everything she needs: she's your responsibility."

"Yes sir!" the marine said.

As they exited the office, Henker could hear Rose's high-pitched voice as she talked to the marine.

"You're the mister from earlier!" she said, sounding delighted.

Henker closed the door and turned to the wall covered in bounty posters. Almost all of them had been crossed out with a large red marker except a very few. These were the pirates he'd been chasing all his life long. For most of them, they were dead (killed by his own hand), but a few still eluded him. Elton Smith was one of them, and one of the most annoying one at that…

But soon, he would get rid of the most dangerous pirate in all North Blue: he had the key right in the palm of his hand—a pink-haired little girl deliciously oblivious to her true value.

He laughed and relaxed in his chair, putting his feet upon his desk. Things looked way better than they'd ever had!

* * *

It was barely 4pm and the Sirocco was ready to head towards her next destination. But she couldn't go yet, because Mr. Panda had disappeared.

Noa had searched the boat for what seemed like centuries, without finding a single hair of the evil cat. It was like he'd just vanished. Exasperated, Noa headed straight to the room and barged in, feeling way too annoyed to even try to be silent anymore. Because of stupid Mr. Panda, they were going to have to wait until tomorrow to leave the island!

"Rose, your cat disappeared!" she said, coming to a stop in front of Rose's bed and putting her hands on her hips. "I'm done looking for him, I've had enough! If you want him to come with us, I give you one hour to find him or we'll leave Jenkind without him!"

A heavy silence was the only answer she got.

Noa frowned and felt her anger quickly leave her. It was… rather strange… With this kind of menace, normally, Rose should have reacted. She should have cried, throw a tantrum, said something to try to convince Noa not to leave without Mr. Panda… But now, she absolutely did not react—she did not even move.

Was something wrong with her? Noa felt guilt wash over her. She had childishly ignored her little sister and had not tried to see past her first impressions. Maybe Rose was more than just sad of seeing Bretton leave them? Maybe she was really sick?

Really worried, Noa rushed to the little girl's side.

"Rose, are you alr-"

Her voice died in her throat as she lifted the covers to take a peek at Rose. But there was no Rose in the bed, only pillows.

"What the…"

Noa could only stare stupidly at the pillows shaped roughly in a human form. Rose was not here? She threw away the covers but the bed was definitely empty.

"Rose! It's not funny! Wherever you are, get out!"

Noa looked under the beds—nothing. She looked in the closet—nothing. And even worse: Rose's favorite outfit and bag were missing.

"No… She wouldn't have…" Noa murmured, incredulous.

She ran to the bathroom, only to find her things gone. Noa looked around her, so panicked now that she didn't know what to do anymore.

At this point, it was obvious that Rose had run away, but why? And where would she go? She didn't know this island at all! And with this marine captain Rin told them about, the little girl could be in grave danger! What if he recognized her as the bastard's daughter? What would he do to her? And what if she hurt herself? Nobody knew her, nobody would take care of her?

_Oh my god…_

What if she was already hurt right now? Noa could just picture it: the smiling, oblivious, defenseless, little girl happily bouncing in a dark forest, falling down a cliff… Or the same smiling, oblivious, defenseless, little girl attacked by thugs (knowing her she would welcome them with wide open arms, thinking she just made new friends)…

Feeling lightheaded, Noa had to sit down and take a few minutes to calm herself down. She looked at her watch: quarter past four—she needed to find the little girl quickly, she only had a couple hours of daylight left. When the night falls, finding Rose would become tremendously difficult.

Noa exited the room and went straight to her desk. She took a small, rusty key hidden in a book and opened a drawer that she usually kept carefully locked. As she was taking a large leather belt and a wooden box, she sighed heavily. Her head was beginning to hurt, as well as her throat and she was feeling kind of feverish: the medicine she'd drunk this morning was slowly but surely wearing off and she didn't have any of it left. It really was bad timing: she didn't have any time to worry about her health right now; Rosie was out here somewhere and she had to find her.

The young woman opened the wooden box and stared at the small glass bottles gleaming in the sunlight. They were orderly classified according to their color and effects, ranging from completely harmless (such as several sleeping draughts) to potentially deadly (poisons, explosives…). They were Noa's only weapons, that she had created herself thanks to what her father had taught her from chemistry… Well, she didn't think he would've ever wanted her to use chemistry as a weapon but…

Frowning heavily as she was pondering over which bottle she would be likely to use (and at the same time trying to ignore her headache), she took two dozens of small glass bottles out of the box and carefully slid them in pouches on the leather belt. Once she was sure all the pouches were closed, she put the belt on, hanging it tightly around her hips.

It was a strange feeling to have the belt on, foreign and familiar at the same time. It seemed like centuries since the last time she had had to use it.

_No time to get emotional!_ Noa berated herself, realizing that she was loosing precious daylight.

She grabbed her coat and her biggest scarf and wrapped herself conscientiously in it. If she couldn't treat her cold right now, she could at least try not to make it worse.

As she ran out of the boat and jumped down on the deck, she didn't notice the new vessel that was moored on the other side of the small harbor, nor its Jolly Roger flapping noisily in the cold wind. And she absolutely didn't realize either that the whole town had become eerily quiet…

She ran as fast as she could through the town, calling her sister's name, hoping that the young girl hadn't gone too far.

Minutes slowly passed by, turning into hours and very soon, the sun was setting and the temperature dropping. Noa still hadn't found a single trace of her sister and she was growing desperate of ever finding her. She had an ominous feeling of the worst kind and an annoying voice kept on nagging her, repeating over and over that something really bad had happened.

As Noa ran for the umpteenth time along the main street, she realized that she could use the help of a local, someone who knew the island... And she knew just the one.

Cursing herself for not thinking of this earlier, she ran towards Rin's shop. Barely a minute later, she was there. The shop was brightly lit inside and Noa didn't even take the time to knock: she threw the door open.

"RIN-SAN!"

CRASH!

The wind was knocked out her as she collided against something hard and she fell backwards, flat on her rear.

_What on earth is a damn wall doing just behind the damn door?_ She thought as she groaned in pain. She shook her head to try to get rid of the little flying pink Den Den Mushis flying in front of her eyes.

She froze as said pink flying Den Den Mushis disappeared, revealing a pair of black leather shoes right in front of her.

Slowly, her eyes went up a pair of white jeans, then up a yellow and black sweater that left two tattooed forearms to be seen, and still up until her eyes met with two small black eyes, heavily circled in black. The young woman felt shivers ran down her spine as a very frightening smile made the tip of his lips tilt upwards. She knew that face…

"Are you alright, Miss?"

_Ooops… That wasn't a wall…_

_

* * *

(1)_ 'Rose' in French means pink, so yes, Rose's name is very befitting (you can blame my great lack of imagination for characters' names)

**First, apologies are in order: I'M SORRY! My only excuse is university. I'll do my best to update regularly (twice a week will most likely be rare, but I'll try...) ^_^* Well, at least this chapter's just on time!**

**Secondly, guess who Noa crashed into? Cookies to whoever finds it! teehehe (though it isn't much of a challenge, is it? ;)  
**

**Anyway, thanks to all the reviewers: SnapshotsOfEternity, ELMO-kibafangirl11, Moonlight Calls, loser94, Jen567 and poisonliz! Thanks also to those who favorited/suscribed to story alert. We're over a thousand hits for this story now! Wooohooo!**

**Well... I'll leave you be, now- Thanks for reading!  
**


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